We turn to Psalm 87 which bears the title “A Psalm for the sons of Korah.” The notation tells us that it was explicitly written for public worship in the Temple. We are not told when it was written, and some scholars have attributed it to David. Others locate it in the days of Hezekiah, and others argue it was written after the return from captivity. So the date is uncertain, but what is clear is that it speaks to all these historical eras as well as to the Church today. Indeed, it takes us beyond all these to our eternal hope. The theme of Psalm 87 and our address is Zion, the City of God and specifically the glorious things God has said of her.
In Volume 8 of the Master’s Trumpet, we considered the relation of noncommunicant, baptized members to the discipline of the church. Should such members be subject to the formal judicial process of ecclesiastical discipline up to and including excommunication? After noting that this question is essentially a practical application of Covenant Theology to church order, we surveyed the arguments against the formal discipline of baptized members and responded to each of these in turn, to establish the view that baptized members are under the whole discipline of the church, up to and including the censure of excommunication. Having established this principle, we proceed in this article to deal with some practical questions of how this discipline might be implemented, at what age formal process should become relevant, and for what judicial discipline might be instigated.
Banner of Truth has been reproducing a selection of their earlier publications of classic Reformed works in recent years, including this one, The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, by George Smeaton. Smeaton (1814–1889) was one of the first-generation Free Church of Scotland ministers in the nineteenth century. At the Disruption of 1843, he left his charge in Falkland to become the minister of the Free Church congregation in Auchterarder, Perthshire. He later served in the chair of divinity in the Free Church College in Aberdeen (1853–1857), before moving to New College, Edinburgh, where he taught New Testament exegesis from 1857–1889. He was highly esteemed as a theologian by his contemporaries and remains so by those familiar with his work today.
The Reformed have historically identified three marks of the visible Church: first, the preaching of the true Apostolic doctrine of the Gospel; second, the administration of the two sacraments appointed by Christ; third, the Biblical government and discipline of the Church. Church members are under its discipline, but a related area of confusion concerns how baptized members, who have not yet communed at the Lord’s table, stand in relation to Church discipline. How should a Kirk Session deal with a baptized member who has grown up in the Church but fallen into sin and turned their back on the means of grace and pastoral care?
